People Power, Civil Resistance, and Social Transformation

An Introduction to Nonviolent Conflict

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About This Course

Published 6/2016
English

Course Description

Learn the three myths about violence that are being used to fuel the world’s current state of perpetual war, and be able to explain the transformative dynamics of People Power and Nonviolent Conflict to your peers, friends, and constituents.

Understand How Civil Resistance Can Conquer Violent Oppression

Learn the terms, misconceptions, and assumptions about Nonviolent Conflict.

Understand the critiques and concerns about using Civil Resistance against a ruthless opponent.

Know the historical lineage Nonviolent Action and today’s community of scholars and activists.

Explain the theories, debates, and dynamics of People Power.

Gain the Knowledge Needed to Transform Your World

Nonviolent Conflict is the third, distinct, way the people can exercise their right to self-rule.

By it’s very nature it generates the massive public involvement required for healthy democratic societies.

When a country’s normal legislative channels no longer work, and a violent insurgency is not acceptable, Civil Resistance becomes the most powerful tool the people have to overcome oppression and transform their societies.

Using People Power and Nonviolent Action to counter violent oppression results in freer more democratic societies, a better chance of reconciliation between parties, and less chance of civil war.

Content and Overview

This course offers a concise introduction to Nonviolent Conflict: the use of People Power, Civil Resistance, and Nonviolent Action to guarantee the people’s right to participate in how they are governed.

The material is designed for students, activists, and policy makers looking for nonviolent ways to meet the national and global challenges that are today increasing the conflict in our world.

The course begins by exposing the three myths being used to keep our world at war, and gives the student an overview of how nonviolent methods can be used to bring forth a freer, more compassionate, and more sustainable world system.

After completing this course the student will be able to, 1) see through the many misconceptions and assumptions about nonviolent methods; 2) identify and counter the popular myths most people believe about war and violence; 3) understand the history, dynamics, and debates about People Power, and 4) explain to their peers, friends, and constituents the dynamic transformative power of Civil Resistance to bring forth a freer, more compassionate, and more sustainable world system.

What are the requirements?

This is an introductory course and requires no other materials, software, or knowledge other than high school level reading and comprehension.

What am I going to get from this course?

At the end of my course students will be able to differentiate nonviolent conflict from ideas of nonviolence or pacifism, discuss the dynamics of how nonviolent conflict works, and explain to others the transformative effects nonviolent methods can have on the individual and society.

What is the target audience?

This course is designed for three primary groups of people: students and scholars of nonviolent conflict, activists participating in nonviolent campaigns for social change, and members of the informed public who want to broaden their knowledge about other ways we have to resolve our differences besides war and continued violence. This course is not for students seeking information about negotiation, conflict resolution, or peacekeeping.

What you get with this course?

Not for you? No problem.30 day money back guarantee.

Forever yours.Lifetime access.

Learn on the go.Desktop, iOS and Android.

Get rewarded.Certificate of completion.

Curriculum

The lectures in Section 1 describe the role of violence in our world, the myths supporting war, and the potential of nonviolent methods to create a fairer, more compassionate, and more sustainable world system.

Lecture 2: nonviolent conflict; need for less destructive way to handle differences; myths supporting war; violence ingrained in society; media thriving on violence; confusion about nonviolent conflict; human’s not violent by nature; few have ability to take another life; brainwashing to kill; suicide rate in armed force

Lecture 3: Hiroshima and Nagasaki as end of war system; now have greatest risk of destruction, greatest chance for peace; elimination of war from world system; polarization of population during war; transformational effects of nonviolent methods; reinforcing myths of war; success of nonviolent action over violence; nonviolent action and subsequent freedom, democracy, reconciliation, and civil war

Lecture 4: nonviolent conflict and democracy; war, nonviolent action and public participation; tactics and strategies; need for massive public support; undermining superiority of modern weapons; inability to kill all people; third-party activation; post conflict results; reduction in cultural heritage, infrastructure, and global environment; war as inevitable; critical paradox; greatest period of nonviolent activism; a choice in how we fight; fighting as transformational means

Lecture 7: terms and confusion; need for cultural acceptance; South African’s and the term nonviolence; Middle Eastern cultures and the term nonviolence; sumud; what nonviolent conflict is not: negotiation, peace studies or building or making, conflict resolution; People Power; democratic ideals; nonviolent campaign; definition of terms; terms for course

The lectures in Section 3 review the many assumptions and misconceptions people, including activists and scholars involved in the field, hold about nonviolent conflict.

Lecture 8: violence as ultimate force; violence as last resort; normality of violence; violence and male domination; historical record of violence; mistaking effectiveness against violent oppression; Nazis and brutality; nonviolent action against Nazis; Denmark and Jews; nonviolent resistance not leading to violence; violence arising when resistance is easy; nonviolent action when resistance is difficult; nonviolent conflict not simplistic, not quirk, potential of citizen action

Lecture 14: Machiavelli and The Prince; Etienne de la Boétie and The Discourse on Voluntary Servitude, or the Anti-dictator,kings divine right to rule; democratic principles; United States Declaration of Independence and Thomas Jefferson; American Revolution; Boston Tea Party; semi-independent institutions; John Adams, war of defense; original thirteen colonies and nonviolent action; Thomas Paine and Common Sense; Martin Luther King and his Letter from Birmingham Jail; global responsibility; “My country is the world; to do good my religion;” basic rights of life; consent of the people; right of people to revoke consent

Lecture 16: Barbara Deming: use of and power of coercion; effects of attitudes displayed by protestors; Occupy Wall Street; anger and public response; John Ruskin and Gandhi; nonviolent action as highest form of freedom; nonviolent action and courage; violence before cowardice; willingness to resist; moral conviction

Lecture 17: Thoreau and civil disobedience; pragmatism and violence; to harm one is to harm all; Gandhi and earning the right to civil resistance; anger and nonviolent campaign; ability of people to follow nonviolent example; fasting and coercion; Tibetan monks and self-immolation

Lecture 23: critiques of Sharp’s consent theory of power; Summy and racism, capitalism, bureaucracy, and male domination; James C. Scott and slave and slave owner relationships, gathering sites; Robert J. Burrowes and the Global Nonviolence Network; cultural attitudes and individual choice; Martin and power systems; multicultural education and global citizenship; world system and structural constraints; President Woodrow Wilson and fourteen-points plan; imperialism and totalitarianism; fall of soviet union, South Africa, and the African National Congress

The conclusion to People Power, Civil Resistance, and Social Transformation: An Introduction to Nonviolent Conflict: The Video Course.

Lecture 24: myths supporting war; humans and war and violence; nonviolent methods as ultimate force; nonviolent conflict as third form of social transformation; misconceptions about nonviolent conflict; transformational power of nonviolent conflict; nonviolent conflict and pacifism; transformational effects of nonviolent conflict; call for more compassionate world

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Instructor Biography

Dr. Robert Allen Kezer teaches people about the power of Civil Resistance to create freer, more just, and more democratic societies.

He is the author of The Boétie Legacy, and a World in Peril and People Power, Civil Resistance, and Social Transformation: An Introduction to Nonviolent Conflict, both available at Amazon.

Bob is currently designing a bachelors level course on nonviolent conflict, a masters level course on nonviolent approaches to terrorism, a doctorate level course on using civil resistance for social transformation, and a course for policy-makers exploring civilian based nonviolent responses to terrorism.

Bob has one son and splits his time between Eugene, Oregon, and Cuenca, Ecuador.